Saturday 1 September 2012

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEWS: DEMON KNIGHTS vol.1 SEVEN AGAINST THE DARK


It's the Dark Ages and King Arthur's Camelot has long since fallen. Seven very special wanderers find themselves by sheer plot device/necessity in the same pub in small village which just happens to be in the path of Morgan le Fey and her sorcerer Mordru's army. Fortunately (or not as the case may be), these wanderers include Jason Blood (who has a habit of turning into the demon Etrigan -see above), their girlfriend Madam Xanadu, the trannie  Sir Ystin the Shining Knight with his/her flying horse, an Amazon, the immortal Vandal Savage (here portrayed as a likeable but still ruthless rogue), an Arab scientist, and the mysterious Horsewoman.

And what you get as a result is a 7-issue action-packed mass of carnage, magic, and monsters, along with the team origin story, lots of character beats, surprises, humour, and yet more bloody violence all woven together by not quite a comic superstar but getting there British writer Paul Cornell.

Appropriate gruesomely lurid art is supplied by the really quite good Diogenes Neves which when combined with the writing skills of Cornell results in another winner in DC's New 52.



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